A bill that would make it tougher to keep a mentally ill inmate in solitary confinement breezed through the Colorado House Appropriations Committee Friday morning.
“I think the reason its going through so smoothly is so many people respect the work of Tom Clements and how he was changing the culture of solitary confinement,” Rep. Joseph Salazar, D-Thornton, said shortly after the bill’s second straight unanimous vote. “They respect the continuation of work by (prisons chief) Rick Raemisch.”
SB 64, which was introduced following the slaying of Clements, passed the Senate with bipartisan support.
Clements was killed by a parolee who spent several years in administrative segregation, also known as solitary.
If the bill is enacted into law, the Colorado Department of Corrections would have 90 days to evaluate all offenders in solitary confinement. If the department determines the offender is mentally ill, the state would have to move them to a step-down unit, a prison for the mentally ill or other housing.
Only under extraordinary circumstances could the department keep a seriously mentally ill patient in solitary confinement, said Salazar, the bill’s sponsor in the House. The bill also provides for the establishment of a board including two members. The bill is also sponsored by Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster.
Denise Maes, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Colorado public policy director, said the CDOC under Clements and Raemisch have made enormous strides already in reducing the number of offenders in solitary confinement.
But Maes added that just as Clements’ killer, Evan Ebel, didn’t receive mental health treatment while in solitary confinement, the department has much more to do to meet the needs of nearly 2,000 inmates in prison with a mental illness.
Currently there is only one mentally ill inmate in administrative segregation, according to Kellie Wasko, the department’s deputy administrative director.I
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
